Orlando Sentinel

Elyssa Cherney Contact Reporter Staff Writer

Sept 28, 2015, 11:08

Man sentenced to life for killing eight-months pregnant wife and the twin boys she carried

The man who shot his eight months pregnant wife in the head, killing her and the twin boys she carried in 2013, pleaded no contest to a charge of first-degree murder on Monday and was sentenced to life in prison.

Michael Boyce, 35, was initially charged with three counts of first-degree murder with a firearm in the death of Alexis Boyce and the twins, who would have been named Kael and Jael. The state dropped two of those counts in exchange for his plea.

In court Monday, Boyce said little as a judge questioned him about the plea — just that he had been taking medication for depression. The Navy veteran had been placed on suicide watch shortly after his arrest in November 2013.

A woman who identified herself as Boyce’s mother told Circuit Judge Greg Tynan that Boyce had not been violent before.

“What happened from a mother’s viewpoint, from my viewpoint, is something that I can’t even wrap my head around,” she testified.

“I just feel that something happened and he might of just snapped.”

Now almost two years after Alexis Boyce’s murder, that reason remains unclear.

Orange County Sheriff’s deputies found the expecting mother, also a Navy veteran, in a chair with a gunshot wound to her head.

Michael Boyce had initially told investigators his wife was suicidal and she had shot herself, arrest records show. But after further prodding, Boyce said he accidentally shot her.

Alexis Boyce’s parents, who shared an Orange County apartment with the couple, saw Boyce holding a 9 mm gun after they heard the fatal gunshot and ran to the room.

She and Kael were pronounced dead after being rushed to the hospital. The other infant, 3-pound, 14-ounce Jael, survived for a week in a neonatal-intensive care unit with brain damage before his grandparents decided to let him go.